Seconds after the runner-up medal was placed around her neck, Carli Lloyd took it off and clutched it in her hand. It wasn’t the prize she and the Western New York Flash wanted at Sahlen’s Stadium on Saturday night. But the Flash admitted it: The third-seeded Portland Thorns beat them, 2-0, to capture the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League championship in front of a crowd of 9,129. They marched into Rochester, where top-seeded WNY (11-5-8) hadn’t lost in 11 straight – all the way back to April 27 – and beat the Flash fair (pretty much) and square. It spoiled WNY’s bid to win a fourth straight title in a fourth different league, and was a bitter end to what star forward Abby Wambach hoped would be a storybook ending to her first season playing for the hometown Flash.

“I don’t like losing, but when the cameras are (on me), you’ve got to put on a pretty face and do the right thing because at the end of the day they proved to be the better team,” the Pittsford native and reigning FIFA World Player of the Year said. “We’re devastated by not being able to pull it out, but I think the result was deserving.”

Indeed, the Thorns (13-6-5) gutted out the win despite playing the final 33 minutes shorthanded after Kat Williamson was given a red card (ejection) for taking down Wambach just outside the penalty area. The rookie defender did the same thing seven minutes earlier, in the 49th minute, to prevent a Wambach breakaway and that may have saved Portland. “Wambach’s clearly in and scores off that,” if not for the foul, Flash coach Aaran Lines said, before acknowledging that, “Portland deserved (to win). I don’t think we performed at our best level.”

The go-ahead goal, along with much of the play all night – fast-paced, of high quality and at times physical – was a beauty. It’s what soccer fans call a wonder shot. Midfielder Tobin Heath, a U.S. national team starter, scored on a 36-yard rocket into the top left corner off a free kick in the 40th minute. Veteran Christine Sinclair added an insurance goal in stoppage time off a pass from Alex Morgan, as the two former Flash forwards connected for the clincher on the same field they helped WNY win the WPS title in 2011. Morgan didn’t start, but the U.S. national team star forward played 18 minutes off the bench. She hadn’t played since spraining a knee ligament Aug. 7. How much she and Heath, who suffered a foot injury in the second half of the 3-2 semifinal upset at No. 2 FC Kansas City, would play was in question all week. Heath exited in the 63rd minute Saturday, but her right foot looked great on that shot. “I knew I’d have limited opportunities and as soon as I saw the free kick in that spot I knew I wanted it,” said Heath, who spent half the NWSL season playing in France before making her debut on July 14 in Portland against the Flash.

As far as how her foot felt, Heath said it “wasn’t even close to 80 percent.”

WNY and Portland tied in their two regular-season meetings, a 1-1 standoff in Oregon on July 14 with plenty of action, and a 0-0 draw on Aug. 10 in Rochester when both teams came in with tired legs. The Flash played without Lloyd in the first matchup, but the Thorns found a way to keep her from converting Saturday. Lloyd had scored 10 goals in 16 matches, one shy of Wambach’s team-leading 11. The Flash led 18-9 in shots, but credit goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc (seven saves) and a hustling Thorns defense – one that recovered from a late-season funk that saw it allow nine goals in a four-game stretch – for holding them in check. Portland denied WNY space on the wings, which prevented the Flash from swinging in crosses looking for Wambach. It was just the fourth time WNY had been shut out.

“I don’t think we created enough clear-cut opportunities to get back in the game,” Lines said. “I just felt our final ball tonight was just off. We tried to force things. We needed to be more patient.”

Both teams had chances early, but both goalies were sharp. LeBlanc tipped Samantha Kerr’s header off the crossbar in the 12th minute and 10 minutes later rookie Adrianna Franch needed to tip a line drive header by Sinclair from 13 yards over the bar. Lloyd and Portland’s Nikki Marshall also had one-on-one looks, but missed just wide. Franch made a great solo stop on Danielle Foxhoven’s breakaway in the 37th minute. It was the first time in four matches that the Flash faced a deficit. The last time it happened, on Aug. 3 at Boston, they scored twice in the final 13 minutes to pull out a 2-2 tie. While they rallied a handful of times for draws, the Flash only came from behind to win once all season on May 24 against Chicago at home. “Tonight wasn’t our night,” Wambach said.

On each of Williamson’s fouls on Wambach, Lloyd didn’t do much with ensuing free kick, blasting one wide from 24 yards and the second into a wall from 19. Up a player, the Flash had a few half-chances, but couldn’t find the tying goal. The closest they came was on a 44-yard free kick by Brittany Taylor that hit the crossbar as LeBlanc retreated trying to get to the floater. “For them to hold the lead playing down a man for 35 minutes, if we weren’t going to score under those circumstances we probably weren’t going to,” Wambach said.

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Jeff DiVeronica has covered professional soccer and the Rhinos for the Democrat and Chronicle since the team's inception in 1996. "Devo's Direct Kicks" takes aim mostly at Rochester soccer, but will also highlight the USL, MLS and U.S. national team play. Devo, his nickname since college at St. John Fisher, also hosts two weekly radio shows each Saturday on WHTK-AM/FM (1280/107.3 or www.whtk.com). "Kick This!" (11 a.m.) features soccer talk, while the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show (noon) covers Section V sports. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.
Or follow him on Twitter: @RocDevo